Holiday sickness index reveals where travellers most likely to catch a bug

Forbes' index ranked destinations according to the risk of catching a travel bug. Photo / 123rf

Catching a bug and falling ill is never a positive experience but it’s particularly terrible when you’re on a long-awaited holiday.

Few things are worse than spending precious time, money and work leave to go on holiday and then be stuck in a hotel room (or bathroom) with a travel bug.

Fortunately, there are precautions you can take and thanks to the Forbes Advisor Travel Bug Index, travellers can see what destinations they should be extra wary in. Forbes created the list of 25 global destinations by sifting through 2.4 million Tripadvisor reviews which included phrases including “food poisoning”, “e-coli”, “gastroenteritis” and “salmonella”.

The most popular holiday destinations were then selected and cross-referenced against other relevant data including whether the NHS recommended vaccinations or boosters for malaria and if travellers are advised to avoid tap water by the Centres For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US.

Destinations were then given a “Travel Bug Index Score” out of 100 and ranked from highest risk to lowest.

According to the results, Puna Cana in the Dominican Republic had the highest rating. While tourists are attracted to the tropical climate, active nightlife and white beaches, almost 10 per cent of Tripadvisor reviews complained about a popular travel illness, with an index score of 90.4.

This was followed by Sharm El Sheik in Egypt, which had a score of 83.5.

In third place with a score of 70.6 was Sal in Cape Verde.

Top 10 travel bug destinations:

1. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
2. Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
3. Sal, Cape Verde
4. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
5. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
6. Bali, Indonesia
7. Hurghada, Egypt
8. Tulum, Mexico
9. Boa Vista, Cape Verde
10. Cancun, Mexico

Forbes then used the same method to rank spots in Europe exclusively.

Top 10 travel bug destinations in Europe

1. Benidorm, Spain
2. London, UK
3. Sunny Beach, Bulgaria
4. Paris, France
5. Tenerife, Spain
6. Menorca, Spain
7. Majorca, Spain
8. Rome, Italy
9. Zante, Greece
10. Mykonos, Greece